Certain medical procedures, such as breast biopsies, must be done with the patient in a face down prone position. There are also imaging and scanning procedures that are done in a prone position. There are several variations of tables that currently exist for these procedures.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,266 issued to Siczek discloses a magnetic resonance imaging device useful for guiding a medical instrument, such as a biopsy needle. The patient is positioned on a table top having an opening through which the patient's breast pendulantly projects. The pendulant breast is immobilized by a basket. The drawbacks of this table are in the volume of tissue that can project through the basket and the general comfort of the patient.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,152 issued to Pellegrino et al. for a prone position stereotactic mammography needle biopsy apparatus and a method for using the same. The table disclosed by Pellegrino et al. comprises a space for an arm to come down beside the table. A drawback of this design is that there is no room for the axilla region to be accessed. This is a serious drawback as a large proportion of tumors in breast cancer are found in the tissue in the axilla region.
Moreover, since new imaging and scanning systems are coming out that require patients to lie on a table for a substantial amount of time, there is a need to improve the general comfort of the patient for medical procedures that are sometimes unpleasant.